Hubert controls France sprint race for second F2 win

Anthoine Hubert dominated the FIA Formula 2 sprint race to claim his second victory of the 2019 season at Paul Ricard.

The reigning GP3 champion maintained his lead from reverse grid pole to head the field into Turn 1, as Jack Aitken surged up to second from sixth on the grid, with Juan Manuel Correa and Jordan King both losing ground.

Correa recovered to pass Aitken for second place at Turn 8 on the fifth tour, with the Charouz driver setting about catching Hubert as Aitken lost another position to UNI-Virtuosi driver Guanyu Zhou at the final corner.

But Renault Formula 1 junior Hubert controlled proceedings throughout to hold on and score his second win in three races on home soil, with fellow rookies Correa and Zhou completing the podium.

Aitken was left to settle with fourth, as Sergio Sette Camara came out on top of an intense intra-team fight to beat DAMS teammate and championship hopeful Nicholas Latifi to fifth. 

Camara got the jump on Latifi in the second half of the race, with the pair running wheel-to-wheel through the fast, sweeping right-hander of Signes, before the latter backed out and conceded position.

Carlin’s Louis Deletraz charged to seventh ahead of Ferrari junior Callum Ilott, who pulled off a late pass on championship leader and feature race-winner Nyck de Vries to snatch the final point on offer in eighth.